Waking up in a hospital bed in, what I assumed to be, an infirmary, I couldn't help but feel strangely happy seeing the worried faces sitting around the bed.
"James! You're awake!"
Sarah was the first to take the lead, somehow ignoring the fact that she had been acting like an innocent teenage girl around me before. Putting her hand on the bed while leaning forward, she couldn't contain her worry.
"How are you feeling? Does your back hurt? What happened?"
In an instant, the happy feeling was replaced with annoyance at how intense the girl was, assaulting me with a flurry of questions before I had even managed to open my mouth for the first time. Even Sophie had an incredibly complicated face as she was scanning my body, now clad in a white gown.
Forcing myself to smile, I tried my best to suck the drama from the air, "I'm fine. My body is just a bit weak, for anyone else it would just be a scratch. So don't worry about it."
Although my words seemed to take the edge off, it wasn't enough to calm Sarah down completely. Fortunately, before she could continue her frantic act of making sure I was okay, Sophie intervened. Unfortunately, she managed to make the situation even worse.
"Why did you fight the boss on your own? You could have either fought with your party or called for Ms. Turner to save you. There was no reason for you to fight on your own."
It was rich hearing the dragon woman talk about not having to face something by yourself, having watched her trying to catch the giant staff of a skeleton monster on her own. Even more funny was the fact that she appeared to desperately try and not call me an idiot.
Still, she had a point. There was truly no apparent reason for me to challenge the werewolf on my own. It was all based on a feeling, a feeling that told me I could win. And if I had a chance at winning, why shouldn't I try everything I could before giving up?
There weren't a lot of things I truly cared about in my life, but for some reason, I truly cared about showing that shitty dog his place. So I did. Sadly, this wasn't something I could tell the three people around me without making them question my sanity.
"There was no real reason. I just did it because it felt right."
The giant woman gave up on getting a good answer out of me, knowing that it wasn't exactly the time or the place for interrogation. "Haaa... Fine. I'm happy that you are okay, at least. However..."
Just as she was about to go on and tell me off like a true mother, the real savior of this story stepped in, illuminating the room with his shining smile, "Sophie, stop. He just woke up, let him rest for a bit. Sarah, you too. Now, let's leave him alone to recuperate. We can talk to him later."
I could almost feel a tear forming in my eye, looking at the sight of Arthur completely taking control of the situation and making sure they would let me rest. In the end, there were two pouting women who didn't have any words to refute him, having gotten trumped by someone they would likely call 'an idiot'.
As they stood up and got ready to leave the room, Sarah made sure to give me some last words of worry, "Make sure to tell someone if it gets worse... Okay?"
In response, I just smiled and nodded, waving my hand as they walked out of the room.
*Bak!*
"Holy fuck! That hurts!"
As soon as they closed the door, I let my repressed emotions surface, the pain engulfing my entire body, although the focus was on my back. Letting my body crunch up like a shrimp, I gritted my teeth at the insane pain that was raging in my body.
It was so incredibly bizarre. I had no problems enduring the pain of absorbing the mana from a dungeon, but the pain from an attack by the werewolf was unbearable.
So what was the difference? Was the pain from absorbing the mana, not physical? And if so, what was it? Unfortunately for me, my smart watch buzzed, showing that I had gotten a text from Sophie, interrupting my thoughts.
[Do you want me to take care of Bobby while you are bedridden?]
'Shit...'
I forgot about Bobby, the wolf that didn't actually exist. How was I supposed to explain this?
'Let's just pretend to be asleep while I think about it...'
****
[Sophie's Pov]
"Now, Sarah. Tell me what happened."
Sitting at the small table in my apartment, I was finally going to get to know what had exactly gone down during the dive. The girl had said that she didn't want to talk to me before James woke up, wanting to make sure he was alright.
Nervously swirling the cup of tea in front of her with a teaspoon, Sarah had a hard time looking directly at my face. After a couple of seconds, she finally began to tell me the story, steadying her mind.
"So, to begin with, James had already decided prior to our dive that he was going to go on his own, without telling us the reason. Even though Sebastian seemed a bit angry with his decision, no one of us tried to stop him."
That did sound like something James would do, going on his own to make sure no one would find out about his Skills. Even I hadn't actually seen the skills that came with his Manual, with the exception of his teleportation ability. The only Skills he had used in the Monastery were either just pure elemental manipulation or Elemental Skills.
"So, you split up as soon as you began your dive then?"
The cute girl just nodded her head, continuing her explanation, "Yeah. So after that, I have no idea what he was doing. However, when we made it to the cave where the boss was supposed to be, it was empty. After that, a huge explosion rang out in the forest, so we hurriedly made our way there."
"And that's where you found James?"
Suddenly, her face turned sad, as if just remembering the state they found him in made her relive what happened. "Yes... He was lying on the ground. Not moving at all. And then, when I tried to save him... Sebastian..."
Her words got caught in her throat, the girl hesitating to tell me what the purple-haired man had done. In the end, I just let out a gentle smile to show her it was fine. "Sebastian did what?"
Sarah took a deep breath, once again composing herself as she looked at me with resolute eyes. "Sebastian wouldn't let me, stopping me from calling for help as he told me we wouldn't stop the dive until we had killed the boss. At this point, we still didn't know that James had already killed it."
'What the fuck...'
How insane was that? Being so caught up in clearing an artificial dungeon to even disregard the safety of his classmate? Was he truly that insane, or was there something else that urged him to carry those priorities?
No matter what, I could feel an intense rage start to build up in my soul. 'How dare someone put something of mine at risk?! Wait.. what...'
"Sophie, are you okay?"
My thoughts had gotten weird again, as the rage inside of me was based on a very possessive emotion towards the ones I regarded as friends, going as far as to regard them as my own things. 'Is this also part of being a dragon? Being possessive?'
It kind of made sense, weren't dragons famous for collecting gold and jewelry just for the sake of it? Still, it was a very dangerous emotion, a line of thinking that I truly didn't want to inhabit my inner self. 'Maybe it's...'
"Sophie! Can you hear me?!"
An exasperated girl was standing up, her hands firmly planted on the table between us as she leaned forward and yelled in order to wake me up. "Oh, sorry! Just lost in thought... So anyway, what were you saying?"
Slowly sitting back down, she looked at me skeptically, not entirely believing I was just simply 'lost in thought'. "Haaa... So anyway, after Trisha showed us the head of the werewolf, proving that James had somehow killed it, Sebastian's attitude just switched. In just a second, he was calm and composed again."
Was it a case of cyclothymia, where he just had inherent rapid mood swings? No, in that case, it would have surfaced a long time ago. So what was it? I truly couldn't tell. The one thing I could tell was that I was pissed, furious at two different men for both acting insane, with one grabbing a much larger portion of my anger.
****
[3rd person Pov]
"Hohoho! It seems like he is developing nicely! Good, good! Now, all he needs is a trigger, something to make him fall off the edge after starting to feel comfortable around his 'friends'."
Mr. Laufeyson spent his days like he most often did nowadays, hiding in the outer layer of the mortal world, keeping a watchful eye on the mortal he wanted to obtain. After thousands of years, he had finally found his one chance at gaining what he truly sought after, to get back what he had been unjustly deprived of.
"Just wait, Gaia... This time, I will be the one to win..."
Monday arrived, with my body feeling good as new. The medical proficiency in this world was truly awe-worthy, all thanks to the people who could use magic or skills to heal. Still, I had an excuse to stay at home for the day, a day which would be spent doing the things I liked best; Being alone.
Still, it wasn't like I was truly alone, I had myself to keep my company after all.
"So, what do you think we should do today, sub-me?"
"Well, we should probably try out the new Skill that we gained after fighting that werewolf. Also, there is a massive need for us to practice our elemental manipulation. Oh! We have to practice weapon imbuement as well!"
There were so many things I needed to do and so little time. Even if my efficiency was doubled by the fact that I used two bodies to train, I had so many things I needed to learn and develop my proficiency in. This was the biggest weakness of my Manuals, they required me to practice a lot of different things in order to show their true potential, unlike a certain dragon woman who only needed to learn how to punch things...
Then there was the fact that after I had used the ring, my Understanding had broken through to the [Major] realm, meaning I could now use the Skill as I wanted.
===Status===
Name: James Jackson
Rank: E+
Strength: F+
Agility: E+
Stamina: E
Intelligence: D-
Mana Capacity: C- *?*
--> Main Manual:
[Trickster - Ungraded] - Major Understanding.
-Core Skill: [Double Trouble]
-1st Skill: [Swap]
-2nd Skill: [Materialize]
-3rd Skill: [Detonation]
--> Side Manual:
[Conjurer - Ungraded] - Minor Understanding
-Core Skill: [Conjure]
--> Elemental Affinity: Mist
->Elemental Skills (Affected by [Conjurer] Manual): [Dome of Mist]
==========
[Detonation]
Description: Detonate the designated mana in the form of a physical pulse of energy. Can be used with either pure mana, elemental mana, or mana in the form of Skills.
Once again, I had gotten a very simple yet very efficient tool to use, all thanks to my understanding now reaching what I perceived to be the first milestone of Manuals. In the game, my current level in the Manual would be level 50, and this was where things got a lot grindier.
The next level of Understanding would be at level 100, and the EXP needed in the game increased exponentially for every level, meaning it needed a lot more than double what it took to reach level 50.
Still, I was happy that I got my first purely offensive Skill, a Skill that I saw no need in purposely hiding as desperately as I needed to hide [Double Trouble], [Swap], and [Materialize]. The effect was efficient enough even if my opponent had a hunch about what it could do.
Of course, that didn't mean I would go out of my way to reveal it to anyone. Tricks are only tricks when no one knows how they work, after all.
Stepping into the practice room, while at the same time forcing sub-me to sit down and practice imbuement, I made myself ready to see how my newly acquired Skill truly worked.
Lifting my hand, I sent out a small orb of mist, not focusing on making the density all that strong. When the orb had gone far enough away from me, I let my mind focus on the description of the Skill. '[Detonation]!'
*Don*
A very, very small implosion occurred in front of me, way too weak to deal any significant damage unless the enemy got hit in a very vital spot. Repeating this process, while altering the density of my element, it didn't take long until I found out the pros and cons of the Skill.
The pros were clear; It could be used incredibly flexibly, and, depending on the density of the mist, the explosion would be stronger or weaker. It was also possible to detonate my element when it was in a less definite shape, however, this almost always led to the implosion being weak.
Also, it was insanely efficient to be used as a trap. If someone didn't know what I could do with my element and I caught them in a [Dome of Mist], they would be in for a world of hurt, just like the boss I had slaughtered.
Sadly, the weaknesses were also apparent. It took a lot of mana, huge amounts even, to explode my element with enough force for it to be efficient, thereby the reason I had passed out after battling the werewolf. It was surprising that I even managed to detonate the mist in the first place when thinking about how low my mana pool was at that moment.
Now was the time for the experiment that I didn't want to try, the part of the Skill that sounded completely insane to use while thinking about the context.
Walking away with sub-me to the end of the room, I tried my best to disconnect from my clone, not wanting to feel the sensation of getting blown up. 'Please, Theia, don't make this feel as I think it will...'
Bracing myself, and gritting my teeth in advance, let grasped the familiar feeling of making my mana explode. '[Detonate]!!!'
*BOOM!*
"Gah!", I got blown away by my own Skill, the power of the pulse of energy incomparable to before, finally stopping as I hit the wall of the room.
"Blargh!" Before I could even get up, a wave of nausea hit me, making my stomach eject all of its content on the floor. The sensation had been insane. Though I hadn't felt any pain, being forced to feel my body and consciousness disintegrating into particles of mana was just insane.
Not caring about the pool of bile in front of my face, I kept trying to process what had just happened. Different from when I recalled a clone, my mind didn't completely disconnect before the detonation, making me feel it as vividly as ever.
"Huff...huff... fuck..."
A part of me seemed to remember this kind of feeling, a feeling of knowing that I had to force my way through this in order to take a step forward. Just getting used to it in time wasn't relevant to me, this was something I would demand my mind to endure.
Sadly, my mana was already too low to summon sub-me for a while, thus I just laid there, just turning my body away from the disgusting substance, and started to meditate to regenerate my mana.
****
[3rd person Pov]
In the royal chamber, King George was currently having an incredibly difficult discussion with his trusted advisor, Sir. Fernsby. Although it was mostly the king easing the weight of his heart. Leaning his head back on his throne, George appeared to be in deep conflict with himself.
"What do I do? I have sworn to eradicate those cursed hidden families from my kingdom, but this... He is just a kid..."
Even with his history of having to make a lot of questionable decisions, this wasn't one he had been forced to make before. At the same time, what choice did he have? If the report he had gotten from the principal of Ainu was true, it was natural to rid the kingdom of its enemies, thus his future action should be simple.
Yet, it wasn't.
"My liege, maybe you should start from another end? Even if the principal has never submitted a report that wasn't truthful, isn't it possible for you to confirm his origin by yourself?"
The words of his advisor were logical, natural even, if it wasn't for the absurdity that was the hidden families. It wasn't a question of not wanting to confirm the truth with his own eyes, he truly did. However, the hidden houses had too many ways to let him escape, otherwise they wouldn't have made him attend Ainu in the first place.
"I'll have to detain him, no matter what, I guess..."
Taking a stand, he made his way to the window that let him gaze upon the buildings of the Great City of Mensch, his face warping into a frown.
"Fernsby?"
"Yes, my liege?"
"Do you know what the hardest part of being a parent is?"
Wrinkling his nose, trying to figure out what the king's words meant, it only ended with him none the wiser. "I do not, my liege. Please do enlighten me."
Turning around, showing a sad smile on his face, the king opened his mouth.
"It's when you know you will have to make a decision that will sadden your child, knowing it's for the best. I just hope I won't be forced to take extreme measures. It would be for the best if we can quickly prove his innocence, after all."
****
[James's Pov]
"Hurgh! Hurgh!"
For the fifth time, I had gotten to experience the feeling of taking my own life, and each time, it got a bit easier. However, there was no helping my stomach wanting to eject the non-existent contents inside of it, making me fall to my knees while dry-heaving.
'Just a couple more times... I just need to experience it a couple more times before I get used to it...'
It was already late, having spent all day forcing myself to continue, not caring about how my brain was screaming at me to stop. But I didn't stop, I wouldn't stop... No, I couldn't stop. If I stopped, I would never be able to walk this path of insanity again, it would be too hard. So, I didn't.
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